Orbán cabinet: Paris summit ‘a meeting of losers’ – UPDATE

The prime minister’s political director, Balázs Orbán, said about the Paris summit on Monday that the French president’s “Paris rendezvous” is “in fact a meeting of losers.”

Emmanuel Macron convened a summit in Paris to discuss “how European leaders, who have been pro-war so far, should react to the peace talks initiated by the US in the face of protests from the European Union,” Orbán said in a Facebook post.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had warned European leaders to draft an independent peace strategy lest Europe lose out on the war once Donald Trump was elected president, he said. “Everything is going according to the script: the European Union has lost this war, the Americans want peace, and Europe has no sensible proposal three years into the war on how it could find its way out of the conflict — meanwhile, thousands are dying at the front,” Orbán said.

“The leaders who derided Viktor Orbán’s peace mission fervently supported further bloodshed in Ukraine, rejected a ceasefire and negotiations, are now in a panic and trying to make themselves look important…”

Orbán said, adding: “Enjoy your nice little brunch!”

As we wrote today, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Astana that “pro-war, anti-Donald Trump” European leaders will meet in Paris on Monday to try and thwart achieving peace in Ukraine, details HERE.

Also, we reported that Balázs Orbán said that the fall of the US Democrats exposed the international liberal network, details HERE.

UPDATE

Gathering in Paris is of ‘pro-war European leaders’

European leaders who are gathering in Paris are “pro-war, anti-Trump and frustrated”, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, has said, adding that they “want to prevent a Ukraine peace agreement from being reached”.

“Unlike them, we support Donald Trump’s aspirations,” he said in a video posted on the government’s Facebook page on Monday. “Unlike them, we support the US-Russian negotiations; unlike them, we want peace in Ukraine.” Szijjártó said the US Vice President and the US special representative for Ukraine and Russia had “harshly criticised Brussels” in Munich last week. “In Brussels, they’ve panicked,” he said, adding that “the enemies of peace” had gathered in Paris because “they want to continue the war”.

UPDATE 2

Orbán points to economic benefits of peace

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán highlighted the economic benefits of peace in a video message posted on Facebook on Monday.

“Peace has economic benefits, another reason we have undertaken a peace mission in the past three years,” Orbán said.

Since the start of preparations by the Russians and Americans for peace talks, Orbán said gas prices had fallen 10pc and the forint was firming. He added that it was “only a matter of time” before the forint traded under 400 to the euro.

If things continue on the same trajectory, he said everybody would see that peace brings economic benefits, too.